Pascal on the Pitch: Chargers end season in style

The Confederation Chargers walked away as NOSSA Girls Soccer "A" champions, but it’s the Marymount Regals who will head to OFSAA next week. Such is the crazy world of high-school athletics at this time of year, when sporting commitments collide directly with some key "end of secondary school career" experiences.

With the tournament being played in Walden, both local reps took care of matters in their morning semi-finals. The Regals blanked the Algonquin Barons 3-0, with Jordin Rancourt netting a pair of goals, Allie Weiler adding the other, and Tyanna Soucy recording the shutout.

In the meantime, the Chargers doubled the White Pines Wolverines 4-2, spurred on by a two-goal effort from Madison Laberge, with solo tallies courtesy of Courtney Ferguson and Shanelle Tremblay. Unfortunately, with seven seniors on the team, a very busy calendar late next week pits their prom and grad on exactly the same dates as the all-Ontario soccer playdowns in Paincourt.

So despite a 2-0 Confederation win late Friday afternoon at the Hillcrest Kinsmen Sports Complex, it will be Marymount that will make the trek to southwestern Ontario on Wednesday. "Although I wish we could go to OFSAA, I’m glad Marymount can go," said Chargers’ head coach Brad Smith. "They are a great group with excellent coaches, and I’m sure they will do very well."

Kaitlyn Walker opened the scoring with the only goal of the first half, and Laberge sealed the deal late, weaving her way through traffic for a very pretty individual effort that she completed with ease. "Our first game this morning was rough for us, we didn’t play well," said Smith. "But in this game, knowing there was no pressure, it was just for fun, I rotated everybody in, everyone got some playing time."

"Maybe I should have been doing that all season, because they played so well."

For Confederation senior Brooklyn Walker and her Grade 12 classmates, the contest would bring to an end four years’ worth of high-school competition. "It’s honestly the best experience, being on a team, making friends, being all together," explained the choked-up 17 year old.

"It’s the best part of high school."

Finishing on such a high provided a memorable environment for the team captain who leaves for the University of Ottawa in the fall, studying within the nursing program. "We went into the game knowing that we were not going to OFSAA, so we were more relaxed," she said. "Marymount has been one of our arch rivals in most sports for girls. We had a fun time, so it made it easy on us and less stressful."

"We actually didn’t even tell the kids until half time," noted Marymount head coach Dan Bartolucci. "We were down 1-0 and wanted to take a little bit of the pressure off. It was two good teams coming together and playing a good, hard soccer game."

Joining the Regals in making the trip to OFSAA, from a Sudbury perspective, are the College Notre-Dame Alouettes. Coach Dominik Valentic and company are off to Fort Erie next week after spanking the West Ferris Trojans 5-0 in the NOSSA Boys "A" final in North Bay.

Viktor Bulic, Samuel Branconnier, Keenan Rocca, Nick Graham and Julien Tubin scored one goal each for the Alouettes, who managed to squeeze past the St Charles College Cardinals 2-1, in overtime, earlier this week. "We had a lot of confidence coming out of that city final victory," noted Valentic.

"For us, today, it was important not to concede (a goal) early on. We wanted to be more cautious with our passing, our possession, because we didn’t know much about them."

St Charles came up just short in "AA" semi-final action, bested 4-3 by the St Joseph Scollard Hall Bears, in spite of strikes from Aristide Uwiduhaye, Taylor Bedard and Ryan Vanderpluym. The Cardinal girls were also eliminated in semi-final play, falling 1-0 to the Chippewa Raiders.

Elsewhere, the St Benedict Bears boys fell 2-0 to the St Mary’s Knights, while the Lasalle Lancers girls took it on the chin against the Knights female talent, losing 6-0 in Sault Ste Marie. The Lasalle junior boys edged St Mary’s 2-1, with Kaleb Courville handling all of the scoring for the locals.

SSports club expands loop

Building on a very solid winter in local futsal ranks, the Sudbury District Sports Club have expanded their summer offerings with the start of the new season upon us. Taking over the Valley East co-ed soccer league some four years ago, the SDSC has now doubled that loop in size, with teams now competing both in league playoffs and an end of the year tournament.

Additionally, after inviting out of town teams to the Sudbury area for an Adult Coed Tournament last summer, the local group would see the courtesy returned this year, with organizers in Huntsville reciprocating. The SDSC have also added a new four team men’s recreational division, as well, with most of these programs running from June 1 through until Aug. 31.

One of the areas of strongest growth has been the move to 7 v 7 soccer, with a fall league that kicked off two years ago now blossoming into a bracket that includes 12 teams and no less than 280 athletes. This offering stretched the soccer season for the more hardcore athletes, allowing them a subsequent two-month fall campaign that covers play in September and October.

The increase in numbers has forced league organizers to break down the 7 v 7 components to include a men’s division, women’s division and men’s 35+ division. Looking even further ahead, the group is expanding the high school futsal tournament into league play, after seeing entries in their annual single day showcase explode from 10 to 22 teams.

Anyone seeking further information on the Sudbury District Sports Club is asked to visit the club website at "www.sdsc.club", or by calling Jim Cress directly at (705) 919-3125.